Since one century scientists try to find out about the cause of inflammatory bowel diseases. New techniques make it possible to examine whether there exist specific genetic profiles that cause chronic diseases. For Crohn’s disease we know today that genes only make a minor contribution to its development.
The trend in nature science, and that really makes me happy to observe, is to recognize that most of the chronic diseases cannot be explained by one cause only. The same applies to Crohn’s disease (CD). Genetic studies proved this clearly.
I want to raise the topic of CD because biestmilch proved to be a very good therapeutic agent in Crohn’s disease. Of course, I ask myself why this is the case, where is the scientific evidence that gives us a reasonable explanation? Now, a group of scientists from the University of the City London, medicine department presents an interesting concept about the multi-causal roots of CD.
In all CD patients examined scientists found abnormalities that indicate minor defects in a bunch of genes and not a single one. Probably they will discover many more of this kind. We must know that various genes contribute to the creation for example of signal transduction molecules etc. Defects on the level of molecules are called phenotypic, on the level of genes science speaks about ontogenetic defects.
Okay then, various phenotypic failures in CD have been detected recently: a mucosal barrier dysfunction, innate immunodefiency states, and the propagation of a chronic inflammatory state. This vicious circle is perpetuating.Three stages of the disease have been defined that close the loop to the perpetuation of the disease.
- The mucosal lining of the gut is normally fairly robust and impermeable for luminal content. Moreover the cells are protected by a thick layer of mucus which make penetration a lot harder too. In CD the gut surface is weakened, permeability is increased and luminal content bacteria included can penetrate into the underlying tissue which is dominated by the immune cells and immune molecules.
- The immune system answers with an immune response to solve the problem the intruders provoke. This acute inflammatory response is usually self-limiting and clears the respective environment of the debris. This does not happen sufficiently. There is evidence that the recruitment of certain immune cells (neutrophils) is delayed, and therefore the situation starts to escalate.
- A state of chronic inflammation is induced, most likely due to a phenotypic abnormalities on the level of macrophages and their messenger molecules the inflammation becomes chronic. What happens now is that ulcerations, fistulation and stricturing and systemic symptoms occur. The disease takes its course …
Biestmilch is a substance that contains thousands of different molecules. A very important role play the immunoglobulins. They are capable to function as scavengers and so help to avoid the luminal content harming the mucosal lining. Moreover studies indicate that biestmilch is able to down-regulate states of chronic inflammation. Our case report studies give strong evidence that biestmilch is able to again and again interrupt the vicious circle of the disease.
Source: Sewell GW, Marks DJB, Segal AW: The immunogenesis of Crohn’s disease: a three-stage model. Current Opinion in Immunology, 21: 506-513, 2009
